Iconic 80s anime Akira serves because the inspiration for RUNNER, a breakneck sci-fi arcade shooter which arguably tries to do an excessive amount of. As a smuggler in an aggressively hostile world, you should outrun robo-cops by seven dynamically generated phases, dual-wielding pistols when you subject a little bit justice your entire personal. Cowboy Bebop’s Steve Blum stars in vibrant cutscene interludes, whereas the sport is bundled with a free visible novel that fleshes out the story – in addition to a soundtrack visualiser, with full PSVR2 compatibility.
It’s a cool package deal, then, however the precise sport throws far an excessive amount of at you from the beginning – introducing a dizzying array of programs and mechanics in an awesome “rub your stomach, pat your head” style. Along with wielding your weapons, you may also launch missiles, lob grenades, choose completely different firing kinds, steer your motorbike, and generate a cyber-sword, which you should utilize to deflect enemy projectiles. It’s a dizzying quantity of stuff, and we nonetheless discover ourselves urgent the mistaken buttons even after a number of hours of play.
To make issues worse, the sport is punishing, to the purpose the place we swiftly realised we weren’t going to get very far with out turning invincibility on. You’ll find a move with follow, however the ranges are extraordinarily lengthy, and whereas there are beneficiant checkpoints, we discovered ourselves feeling bodily exasperated at occasions. We’re in all probability simply not minimize out for the runner way of life, however there are some actually brutal design choices, like when wielding a weapon together with your left hand you possibly can solely steer with the proper thumbstick; there’s a automobile you possibly can unlock which lets you steer whereas holding your weapons, however you’ll must wrap your head across the system as it’s earlier than you get there.
Along with the synth-driven metropolis pop soundtrack, the neon punk aesthetic appears to be like very nice in 4K in PSVR2, and whereas the colourful colors could result in complications, we just like the chaotic, nearly violent nature of the presentation. However finally, we discovered ourselves tiring of the overly lengthy ranges pretty rapidly, and so the title lacks that sense of replayability that’s so basic to really nice arcade releases.
